If you search Google and start typing "thepir...", autocomplete suggestions will no longer offer up "thepiratebay.se" or "thepiratebay.org." The Pirate Bay isn't particularly concerned with the censorship--they're constantly having to deal with it--but it does start to raise issues with Google's unilateral censorship.

If the terms are searched for specifically, the indexes still remain and will be returned. However, the idea is that they won't be suggested so users will have to already know about The Pirate Bay in order to gain search results for it. That said, if you already know about it, you probably don't need to be searching for it.

No court ordered the removal and it wasn't needed as Google feels they need to do their part to combat online piracy. "While there is no silver bullet for infringement online, this measure is one of several that we have implemented to curb copyright infringement online," a Google's spokesman told TorrentFreak previously.

So, is this the beginning of a slippery slope? Where will Google decide to stop? What happened to just indexing the data and presenting it? These questions will need to be answered soon, before consumers lose faith in Google.